Haunted Attraction Reviewed: Halls of Horror
Website: www.hallsofhorror.net
Location of Attraction: Palmerton Pennsylvania
Date of Review: Saturday October 19th 2019
Total Number of Attractions Available: ONE
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 9/10
Entertainment and Food Rating: 8.5/10
Atmosphere Rating: 10/10
Overall Costume and Make Up Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Cast and Crew Rating: 10/10
Overall Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Feedback: Halls of Horror provides truly one of the most unique haunt experiences that we’ve ever encountered. This one attraction haunt is located in the small town of Palmerton Pennsylvania, right in the middle of town located next door to a local beauty salon. On the drive by, Halls of Horror surely looks to be a less than frightening haunt, and that is what makes them unique. Definitely don’t judge “the book by its cover” as this haunt provides an experience that is not for “lightweight” haunt goers. Halls of Horror utilizes abusive language and mature content with a very hands on approach, which makes them geared towards the 18+ years of age crowd. ALL guests must sign a waiver prior to going through the attraction. Any guests under 18 years of age will need a parents consent on the waiver.
The haunts “midway” area per say takes place on the sidewalk of the Palmerton streets. Not much going on in this area other then several photo booths, ticket booth and a roaming scare actor. But have no fear, if you’re hungry there are several great local eateries ready to whip up scrumptious meals for you. Our group actually visited Joey B’s about ½ mile from the haunt and had an amazing pre-haunt dinner! Definitely take the opportunity to support the local community of Palmerton while visiting Halls of Horror.
Once brave enough to approach the ticket booth at Halls of Horror the time has come to determine which experience you plan to partake in. Halls of Horror has two ways of experience their haunt; the “correct” and “incorrect” way. The “incorrect” way would be choosing the original haunt priced at $20 a ticket. The “correct” way would be choosing the BLOOD EXPERIENCE priced at $35 a ticket. The blood experience is the MESSY and PHYSICALLY EXTREME version of the haunt! If partaking in the blood experience, be prepared to get covered in blood, various liquids, shaving cream and who knows what else! The blood experience also allows the actors to ramp things up a bit by giving them the green light on touching, restraining and separating you from your group. No matter which experience you choose, you’ll be subjected to mature content and abusive language, so if you’re sensitive to that, Halls of Horror isn’t the haunt for you! Guests partaking in the blood experience receive a white Halls of Horror t-shirt along with protective goggles. You of course get to keep the t-shirt which makes for a unique keepsake after your experience. The ladies at the ticket booth will do their best to convince you into doing the BLOOD EXPERIENCE, and rightfully so as it truly is the BEST way to experience Halls of Horror.
On the night we attended we had 13 reviewers in attendance and are pleased to say 11 of the 13 participated in the blood experience. We’ll cut some slack to Jeff and Katie, who elected for the original non-bloody experience, as they had a solid 4 hour drive back home and preferred not to smell like rotten corpses for that trip. It’s worth noting that Jeff and Katie felt the 4 hour trip was well worth it to experience Halls of Horror! We actually learned that the night we attended, Halls of Horror’s biggest fans were in attendance. These two individuals traveled up from North Carolina, and do so every year, to experience Halls of Horror. By 8pm they had already gone through 3 or 4 times! We can’t imagine what they look like by the end of the evening.
After snagging our tickets and putting on our white Halls of Horror shirts, our crew congregated in front of the entrance facade. We watched as other patrons exited the attraction, many of them having partaken in the blood experience, covered in blood with HUGE smiles on their faces. This definitely amped us up and got us thoroughly excited for the experience that lies ahead. Literally every guest we saw exit the attraction immediately began chattering with their fellow crew members about how spooktacular the experience is.
Something we love about Halls of Horror is their dedication to ensuring all guests, no matter the original or blood experience, receive an intimate and spooky fun experience. To ensure this happens, they allow groups of 4 max to enter the attraction every 5 minutes. This allows for significant spacing in between groups, giving the scare actors plenty of time to interact with each group of patrons. With such small groups, there is no hiding from the scare actors. Each and every patron will receive his/her fair share of engagement with the actors.
With having a group of 13 reviewers in attendance, we got broken down into four different sized groups. Once reaching the entrance door a haunt staff will review the rules and reiterate to you what you just signed up for. We’ve personally seen guests pull off their Halls of Horror shirts and chicken out of the blood experience before even stepping in the doorway. Halls of Horror has no shame in accurately preparing their guests for the experience ahead. Eventually the red light turns green signifying its your turn to enter the attraction. Once venturing down a flight of stairs and making a left turn you better be ready because all hell breaks loose from that point forward!
Once in the attraction itself guests should expect to experience 20 minutes of non-stop action. You’ll encounter nuns, Sal the Barber, radioactive zone, the miner/mineshaft, the butcher, insane asylum, doctors office, happy the clown, rednecks and much more! Is that enough variety for you? The majority of the scenes possessed significant interaction with the scare actors, we’ll list some of these encounters below:
The Nun has no time for games so you better sit down in her confessional and confess your deepest, darkest sins! The Nun deemed several of our members bound for hell as she grabbed the collar of our shirt with both hands, lifted us out of the confessional seat and tossed us towards the exit!
The Miner is a greedy man so you better be prepared and bring him something valuable in exchange for him letting you traverse through his mineshaft. We unfortunately came empty handed which didn’t go over so well with this big fella. He definitely used some abusive language to insult us, which in return had us laughing hysterically.
Sal the Barber is easily one of the best and most memorable actors. His accent is catchy and very barber like. “Aye, what kind of cut are we doing here today”. As he looked at our members beards and heads of hair he was displeased and disgusted. Sal then proceeded to splatter presumably what was shaving cream all over our face and neck. Smirk at this man and he’ll hold his razor sharp blade against your throat.
The Butcher is one big boy. Step into his kitchen and pray he had enough to eat courtesy of the previous group. Otherwise, he may start hacking off your limbs. Unfortunately, he deemed us “tasty” and used one big brush to baste his meat with his “special sauce”. The proceeded to graphically explain how he was going to dissect us, cook us and consume us.
The “cotton” sisters in the asylum provided a bloody terrific time. Unfortunately the one sister was having a rough go with her menstrual cycle and handed off her blood soaked tampon to one of our members, yuck!
The redneck section was by far one of the groups favorite areas. It kicks things off with someone's, “sister”, being in child labor. As we rounded the corner, all we see is a bloody doll go flying through the air. “How dare we not catch the baby, now she’s dead”. As punishment the older “brother” selects one member to “impregnate”, male or female (this kid had no preference), tosses you up on the bed, lifts your legs over your head and does the “deed”.
Clearly the above six examples should prepare you for what to expect on your journey, along with at least a dozen more scenes and actor interactions. Obviously due to the nature of our page and the variety in our readers we can’t specify the exact wording these scare actors utilize. Just know that it is surely abusive and vulgar nature! We give major props to these scare actors for being downright SCREAMTASTIC! These actors are the definition of committed to their roles. The improv and fluidity in their interaction with guests truly makes it feel life like. Them having the ability to touch, grab ahold of you, restrain you, and speak in a demeaning manner to you really makes for an interactive show. We at the end of our experience learned that the scare actors are given no direction from the haunt management. They have free reins and the ability to do whatever they please and boy have they perfected their craft! Job well done to the Halls of Horror scare actors!
After a solid 20 minutes of being plastered with blood, various liquids, shaving cream and other “things” we finally reached the exit. Other guests eagerly look on in amazement at how disgusting everyone appears after experiencing Halls of Horror. All guests get to have their photo taken sitting on the Halls of Horror coffin. These photos are later uploaded to their Facebook page where guests can download them for free, we’ve always appreciated this! Eventually our entire crew successfully made it through the experience. We easily spent 20 minutes chatting amongst ourselves about the different interactions with the actors. We all had to learn “who held the tampon?”, “who got the colonoscopy?”, who got impregnated?”, etc. The 20 minutes outside the haunt reminiscing on our experience was just as fun as the 20 minutes inside the attraction itself. One common theme was clear after our experience at Halls of Horror - we’ve never been so excited and amped up for a haunt like we were at Halls of Horror!
Yes, Halls of Horror doesn’t possess the most visually stunning scenes or movie quality makeup and costuming but what they do possess is a thrilling, fun and unique experience unlike any other haunted attraction! We promise you’ve never experienced interaction with scare actors like you will at Halls of Horror! It may not be the most downright horrifying haunt experience but it's certainly comical and messy. We advise all avid haunt fans who don’t mind mature content, vulgar/abusive language and getting messy to pay Halls of Horror a visit. Don’t be a wimp and make sure to do things the “correct” way by participating in the BLOOD EXPERIENCE! Thank you Halls of Horror for being different and providing an experience like we’ve never encountered before! Job well done Halls of Horror!
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